#sun lounge

Though I was only recently introduced to the sounds of Dai Nakamura through Growing Bin Records, the composer and producer has been active since the early 2000s, working solo as Nuback, and also collectively with bands such as Bank andBlank Music. Much of Nakamura’s work finds its home on the artist’s own Too Young Records, and back in 2013, the label digitally released Nuback’s Good Bye Summer, AgainEP, two tracks of which were eventually selected by Growing Bin for the When the Party’s Over / Heartbeat Summer 7”. Nostalgic city-pop, heart throb indie, and dub-kissed chillwave thread together as sparse rhythms and big bottomed basslines groove beneath swirls of ethereal synthesis…these aqueous pads, soaring leads, and starlight sparkles that swim aside funk guitar licks and swooning soul vocalizations. And there is a distinct sense throughout—helped in no small part by the title of each track, and of the EP from which they are sourced—that the music here is meant to function as a wistful love letter to the end of summer…to bittersweet remembrances of coastal highway cruises, afternoon beach parties, late night dances, and early mornings spent watching the sun ascend across magnificent expanses of gold and blue. 

Nuback - When the Party’s Over / Heartbeat Summer (Growing Bin Records, 2020)
“When the Party’s Over” begins with glimmering synth chords that stretch through ping-pong echoes, their decay trails flowing towards a gorgeous summer horizon. Rubber band boogie bass pounds and broken kick and snare beats hold down a skeletal groove, while further layers of oceanic synthesis swell into the stereo field. Cluster of starshine shimmer in the sky, pads move like liquid light waves, and majestic melodies are buried beneath layers of sweeping filter mesmerism while in the distance, electric guitars riff through multi-hued clouds of seafoam. As we back down into washing synthetic wavefronts and barely-there kick and snare rhythms, Nakamura croons romantically around the mix…breathing sensuously…voice double tracked and spoken close…conversational and sweetly naïve. Solar guitar hooks and layers of blissed out electronica rush in for a sort of chorus as Nakamura’s voice backs into a sadboy indie serenade, with the vibe sleepy eyed, slightly stoned, and softly psychedelic. During the bridge, hazy pads hover aside the vocals and bulbous basslines move beneath blasts of galactic magic, with sonorous soul hooks and radio AOR lyricisms flowing out into the ether. Sometimes, further guitar layers scat out spacey funk riffs in support while overhead, kosmische arps sparkle like liquid diamonds. There’s a moment where things slowly devolve towards a false ending…the track seeming to vaporize as drums and pads wash out beneath bell tree cascades and synthetic firefly dances. But as echoing space guitars decay and blurred electronics mimic a mirage, a timbale roll rockets the track back to life, leading to one last soulful summer pop swing that slowly fades into silence.

Over on the B-side sits “Heartbeat Summer,” where jazz snares and house claps work together over clipped kicks and smoldering e-piano romantics. The background overflows with chittering echo manipulations and broken machine oscillations, though these sounds swirl far in the distance, leaving room for sub bass dub bubbles to guide summery group vocalizations. Nakamura’s multi-layered voice moves through wordless soul-hooks…like the backline singers for some Motown diva transported into a spell of downtempo seafloor balearica. Synthesizers paint the air in shades of aquamarine as they reach out across infinite oceans and futuristic wobble basslines sing strange lullabies in support. Metalloid vapors breath and sparkling strands of crystal break free from the murk as they introduce anthemic guitar harmonies…these sky-seeking fusion pop licks that vaguely remind me of PInback…a sort of flamboyant six string duel repurposed for indie heartache and twilit romance. Following this, the flubbing spaceage bass wobbles return to sing alien sea shanties and woven threads of starshine synthesis resume wrapping around the heart, their melodies carrying the spirit away towards a paradise unknown. And all throughout the background, a calming cloud of dissonance continuously mutates, from which psychosonic threads push out into view before receding into nothingness.

(images from my personal copy)

The newest release from Crash SymbolsisHyphae, which was composed and produced by Andrea Rusconi under the name PAQ. The A-side is awash in balearic vibes, with music touching on downtempo tropicalia, fuzzy psychedelia, slow surf exotica, and stoned acid jazz. As for the B-side, Rusconi presents compelling combinations of sunrise-soaked tāmpurā drone, deep space synth slop, dopamine bebop, new age tribal, and solar flare ambient. The focus throughout is less on progression or transition, as almost every track locks early into a heady hypno-groove—or into spell of hypnagogic ambient—and from there, Rusconi and his collaborators paint the air in otherworldly hues while using subtle layering to generate mesmerizing displays of energy and motion. As such, the album is well named, and each song can be interpreted as a slowly advancing hypha…a tendril of lysergic sound twisting and winding into a grooving structure, which then grows together with other similar—yet distinct—threads of organic audio mysticism to form a complex body of mind-altering magic.

PAQ - Hyphae (Crash Symbols, 2021)
The title track opens in a natural setting, as whooshing winds join a panorama of birdsong. Star-trail feedback tracers introduce a bassline comprised of big buzzing space subsonics, and a horizontal groove emerges around it, built from ticking cymbals and rhythm box hand drums. Arpeggios like diamonds flitter about the spectrum and sampled choirs pulse in and out of the stereo field…their breathy songs helping to give things the air of a rainforest river trek, with a vibe not unlike fell Italian adventurers Lorenzo Morresi and Walter Quiroga. LSD-laced squelch solos cycle above balmy grooves of tropical electro-lounge, zipping laser wisps intermingle with garbled broadcasts from faraway solar systems, careening delay oscillations spiral out of control, and what sounds like solar organ drones are buried beneath layers of acidic liquid…like a screaming Afro-jazz siren sitting just out of reach. Then, as the rhythms disperse, basslines walk a seaside oasis rendered in tones of melted crystal, wherein drunken music boxes morph into alien radars. Next comes “Atomic Samba,” the name of which almost says everything there is to say. Riffing wah guitars and bulbous basslines bring in a shuffling island funk groove, with touches of Latin romance kissing the equatorial vibrations. Rimshot and snare hypnotics keep the mind entranced while kick drum and frogsong bass pulse deep into the body, and the combination of heavy-bottomed 70s groove and liquid six-string psychedelia pulls my mind to Fontanelle, only as if playing the part of a lounge band at some sunny Ibizan café. Understated melodies shine as if generated from a harpsichord made of quivering gemstone and highlife organs sing psychotropic hymns to the sun while galactic energy blasts push the balearic jam towards more cosmic waters. And by the end, the rhythms drop, and in the resulting world of ambient sonic sunshine, a bass guitar chugs, with slight distortion and vocal filtering kissing the fried funk lines.

Space age electronics wiggle through the void in “Airmalta” before a stoned lounge jazz jammer emerges, with contrabass plucking through the shadows. The drums of Enrico Ro morph quickly from lazed spiritual bop to a popping acid jazz breakbeat, though the vibe remains low slung and delirious, especially as smoke-shrouded e-pianos diffuse through the murk. The background overflows with weirdo space sounds, bubbling cauldron fx, insectoid hums, and cascades of resonance that filter into blinding light…all while a serpentine fuzz organ moves overheard, the vibe seasick, drunken, and countered by blistering waves of psychedelic fuzz guitar. Drum and bass continue holding their downbeat jazz groove and the electric pianos grow increasingly abstract while skronking chords intercut the SiP-esque Afro organ melodics. And eventually, the groove starts to vaporize, leaving overdriven keys and webs of slapback. As for “Lowed,” Rusconi drops us straight away into a world of surf psychedelia, with big basslines cruising along some seaside highway, and drums hard panned as they swing on the beat. Infectious snares intertwine with shaker and bongo patterns, while vibraphones sparkle in the moonlight. Piero Ambrosani’s trumpet coos out clouds of color and percussive vocalisms move at the edge of the mix…like bending saws approximating the soft songs of jungle fauna. There are evocations of Diminished Men, in particular when sci-fi synthesizers start squelching over the big bottomed surf jazz jam out, bringing with them a futuristic touch that only enhances the atmospheres of noir exotica. Trumpet and synth blur together into a fuzzed out mirage of melody and harmony, with the brass growing increasingly adventurous at certain times, while elsewhere backing a sensual whisper. Basslines pull out momentarily, and when they return, the stirring sounds of woodwinds join the mix, which sing their aerophone lullabies through a cinematic drug den haze. Then, as the track closes, it mutates into a nocturnal jazz zone out, with shakers and starlit idiophonics conversing with Ambrosani’s calming trumpet purr.

“Karin Solaris” opens the B-side and features high end drones wafting like opium smoke while unidentifiable field recordings suffuse the spectrum…these shuffles and scrapes of mysterious origin. Sickly drones grow in strength within the ether and golden shimmers from the noa bells and tāmpurā drones of Ambra Galassi peak through oceanic wavefronts generated by bowed strings. Echo pedal manipulations cause multi-tracked ghost howls, or sometimes sudden tonal shifts…like ripple moving through the fabric of the universe…and there are evocations of Pelt and Ariel Kalma, of Mind Over Mirrors and GHQ, and of Bitchin Bajas and La Monte Young, with cascading currents of feedback converging…resonating…vibrating. Feet rustle in the grass and bells are shaken in a state of ecstatic trance as brain bending oscillations swell in intensity, their tonal soundbath serenade activating astral portals and third eye visions. “Ouzospore” starts with oscillations moving through extra-terrestrial fluids, and with constructive collisions generating squiggles of spectral squelch and sprays of silver starshine. Melodic bubbles percolate beneath mangled modulations and sleepy-eyed filter sweeps while crazed percussive rolls fade in before panning out of sight. Electro-toms move side-to-side as a soporific slice of astral tribal jazz emerges, one that sees basslines locked into a classical bebop walk, though as if slowed down to a fever dream pace. Beating bongos generate skeletal percussive structures that are further supported by snare sketches and sparse cymbal splashes, and squarewave synth leads swim drunkenly through seas of galactic detritus wherein swirling spirals, feedback blasts, and liquiform oscillations merge as one.

“Notturno” begins with ceremonial drones flowing forth from the center of the cosmos…the effect like slowly lapping wavefronts of alien sound. Massive sub bass bubble bursts are guided by gentle tabla rhythmics, with the track taking on the feel of a berceuse as it lulls the mind into the world of dreams. Tremolo picked strings swell into magnificent arcs of post-rock wonderment—which trail like shooting stars across an expansive night sky—and my mind is drawn to Mogwai perhaps, even as the rest of the groove more so resembles the sundowner balearica of Max Santilli. Pads cry, moan, and morph into robotic baby babble, while simultaneously creating clouds of comfort the float the soul. Twinkling tones of silver and gold ping in the distance as the the mind drifts further towards visages of childlike spirits sleeping in moonlit clearings, where leaves and grass generate organic rhythms that merge with melting sonics as they rain down from the stars. Closing track “Radiomessaggio” begins with the titular radio messages, the origin unknown as Rusconi phaser-blasts the sounds into a body of billowing cosmic gas. Distorted voices and conversations from past lives are buried in layers of glittering noise while plucked tones of mutating glass warble and worm through the fractalized air. Snippets of sound are caught in malfunctioning delay machines, causing feedback oscillations to trail off to infinity, and as modulating bass sweeps filter through meditative cycles, the aforementioned tones of glass splinter into shards of screaming feedback. Heavenly organ drones sit beneath these layers of solar skree…a sort of new age incantation fighting against brain piercing psychsonics…as if some Seahawks or Experimental Audio Research-esque space ceremonial has been merged with the crazed treble psychedelia of Vibracathedral Orchestra or Sunroof!. Esoteric tones of kosmische energy explode into supernovas of strange colorations, sonar sonics pull the body and spirit towards some aqueous netherworld, and as the track moves to a close, warming bass waves and plucked abstractions swim together through an echoing dreamspace.

(images from my personal copy)

Sympathetic improviser, modal mystic, and experimental soundscaper Landon Caldwell unveiled a new project earlier this year in collaboration with Moon Glyph, which saw the artist remotely leading an amorphous collective called Flower Head Ensemble. The result was a stunning display of ambient jazz spirituality, built almost entirely from chance and guided by pure intuition. Indeed, to craft the three slabs of sonic delirium occupying Simultaneous Systems—as well as the two side-longs on the Companion Environ tape released recently on the artist’s own Medium Sound—Caldwell sent each of his collaborators morphing and minimal soundbaths, over which they added sax, drums, strings, synth, and mallet instruments completely independently of one another. With this cache of primordial sonic matter, Caldwell then sculpted and shaped extended pieces of ethereal beauty and esoteric magic…pieces that feel so complete, and move with such grace and purpose, that it is hard to believe the contributors weren’t all in the same room riding the vibe together. Sounds merge and combine effortlessly, with vibraphones gleaming, horns screaming, and drums moving mysteriously underneath, sometimes rustling through windswept whispers, other times exploding into chaotic free jazz cacophony. Organ drones, e-piano dreamspells, polyphonic pads, and alien Moog modulations swim around in drunken seas of ether, flowing back and forth between serenity and intensity, and through it all, string instruments pluck, saw, and sigh, with tones ever-obscured by blinding glimmers of feedback. The result is something akin to both free and spiritual jazz, but that also takes in psychedelic minimalism, drone-based ambient, and experimental post-rock, with an overall feel that—at least to my ears—wouldn’t be out of place in the catalogs of early Kranky and Constellation, VHF, and of course, the legendary ECM. 

Landon Caldwell & Flower Head Ensemble - Simultaneous Systems (Moon Glyph, 2021)
At the start of “Reaching Out,” bell tones and trap kit motions decay through cavernous spaces, while the echoing horns of Mac Blackout (alto sax), Tom Lageveen (alto sax), and Nick Yeck-Stauffer (trumpet) spin romantic fanfares before swelling into ecstatic walls of sound. Chimes twinkle within the droning miasma, and subtle themes begin taking shape, with horns blowing in unison, plucked strings riding phaserwaves, and keys letting loose smoldering blues incantations. Tambourine splashes and sleigh bell shimmers grow in strength as bowed instruments generate blinding sprays of feedback, and having disappeared for a stretch, the horns eventually reemerge, with trumpet and violin singing songs of elegiac Americana in a way reminiscent of Jackie-O Motherfucker and their free folk/jazz odyssey Fig. 5. Bass synths accent Thom Nguyen’s drums as they sputter in the shadows, with tapped rides radiating golden vapors, and rimshots interspersing with junkyard percussion. K. Dylan Edrich’s strings continue asserting themselves through layers of splattered rhythm and dissonant synthetics, and at certain moments, the vibe is akin to the mighty orchestrations of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, only as if playing a shambling drone paean to the spirits of sun and sky. Brass swells bleat and blear into shamanic fire…into a purifying light that descends over an unsettled sea of organ droning, with tones otherworldly in their abandonment of melody…like waves of rainbow light mutating and modulating through a ceremonial storm of improvisation. Something approaching a defined drum beat emerges, with cymbal sizzles holding a count and broken kick and snare patterns ever-evolving. Trumpet and alto blow cosmic mysteries across the spectrum as the vibe approaches abstracted noir…like viewing a sunset cityscape through a fever dream fog. The rhythms continue their active ascent as Nguyen rolls around the kit in a physical display of force, and all the while, phasing keyboard chords grow ever more distorted…as if threatening to pull the track towards the sinister. Yet the horn trio contrasts the darkness with purifying baths of sonic light and longform melodic mysteries that eventually fade to nothingness. And by the end, all that remains are boiling bodies of organ drone and cymbal taps that sparkle like diamonds.

“Life Underground” opens the B-side with chords reducing to a metalloid haze, and repetitions of noise that are at once harsh and soft. There is a vague air of melancholy underlying the introductory movements, and eventually, gemstone keys reflect the light of a creeping dawn. Liquid swells wash the mix clean and waves of deep droning blue cascade over the body while alien fluids drip all around, and as Edrich’s strings fight again through layers of blinding drone, wild winds whip up a roaring vortex of sound. Keys evoke childhood music box meditations, rapidly bowed strings flutter like insect wings, and subsuming midtone drones push towards feedback while horns swell in the distance…their majestic melodies and waves of warmth uplifting the heart. Viols morph into displays of solar light and Yeck-Stauffer alights on shrieking solo adventures…his slithering and slip sliding trumpet leads moving in and out focus amidst resonant bell tones and the monosynth buzz of Mark Tester’s Moog. A symphony seems to swoon in the background ether as pounding bass patterns emerge, eventually revealing themselves as a sub-oscillator seance, wherein pitch and frequency modulate according to some unknowable logic. All the while, horns harmonize high in the sky—though their tones are obscured by blasts of galactic detritus—and as a final swell of synthesized starlight beams down from the heavens, the track breaks apart in totality.

The transition between “Life Underground” and “Woven Realm” is essentially seamless, and from the scattered silences of the former emerge the skroning saxophonics of the latter, which soar and scream through echoing corridors, resulting in an extended soliloquy of free jazz fire music. Keys begin letting lose blankets of mysterious arcana in the background, with subdued percolations evoking a lullaby dance through a sea of shadows. Sickly organs swell into a growing body of cacophony that is interspersed by beams of psychotropic radiance, with tonal drones sliding up and down while string instruments mimic theremins. As things progress, another holy soundbath emerges, featuring blissful waves of dissonance, phasing rotations, and the enigmatic dances of bowed strings and blown brass. Cymbal taps grow into stormclouds of metallic haze while elsewhere, Nguyen bashes, smashes, and crashes with reckless abandon, seemingly utilizing every square inch of his kit. And anchored to this kinetic display of rhythmic mesmerism is a glowing cloud of sonic serenity, wherein horns, strings, and synths evoke some mystical ceremony…some ritual of astral ecstasy that builds and builds towards transcendence before flowing away into an outro of seasick keys, woven brass patterns, and twinkling mallet tones.

(images from my personal copy)

I am excited to dive again into the sonic world of Aural Canyon, and my focus this time around is on the Palo Santo tape recently released by Remember Ecstatic Duo. The project is comprised of Kristine Reaume and Michael Sharp, the former a highly skilled flautist and botanical healer, the latter a far-ranging explorer of experimental and aggressive music who, in his solo work, delves deep into kosmische, space rock, acid folk, and drone. As well, both members are great friends of mine, and as much as I dislike using this blog for any sort of self promotion—preferring instead to foreground all the amazing art that inspires and sustains me—I see no way around mentioning Sungod, a psychedelic sound collective whose central core is comprised of Reaume, Sharp, and myself (along with a gifted multi-instrumentalist named Nick Lombard). Across Sungod’s existence, we have touched on new age music, spiritual ambient, minimalism, and strains of Berlin School from the late 70s and early 80s, and it’s from these same wells that Remember Ecstatic Duo draw their inspiration. However, their work is not some mere extension or side project of Sungod, and is instead a fully formed and separate entity that, in addition to the aforementioned aesthetic influences, draws on a deep sense of connection between Reaume and Sharp, stemming from their marriage, and from their parenting of a wondrous child. Indeed, as Sharp himself puts it, “[Palo Santo] represents a journey through how our love has blossomed, and how our focus on each other has enhanced and grown with our family.” What results then is a mesmeric collection of meditative sound sourced from two interconnected spirits, wherein Sharp’s polysynths generate droning dreamscapes, sequential starscapes, breathing blankets of metallic shimmer, and infinite expanses of underwater incantation while Reaume’s flutes dazzle and dance through tape echo oceans and cosmic corridors of reverberation…sometimes executing melodic progressions of romantic wonderment and magical fantasy, other times devolving into pure atmospheric experimentation.  

Remember Ecstatic Duo - Palo Santo (Aural Canyon, 2021)
The album opens with “Estuary” and its primordial invocation of resonance and feedback. Glimmers and shimmers move in the distance and through the layers of pure harmonic motion, Reaume’s flute enters…like an emerging dawn teasing out tendrils of sunlight. Spiritual note cascades decay from infinite mountain tops and a synth sequence percolates in slow motion through the background, with a vibe less kosmische, and more so oriented towards the mystical minimalism of Terry Riley, Don Cherry and Bitchin Bajas. Reaume continues flowing and glowing overhead, her long billowing blows producing celestial sound threads that wrap around each other, while her pauses leave space for otherworldly pads and sequencer patterns to merge in totality. As everything continues to melt through banks of reverb and delay, further sequential structures enter the stereo field, producing blinding displays of solar vibration that grow increasingly intense and subsuming. At some point, the minimalist bass sequences slowly disappear in a sea of echo as the flute transforms into gaseous ether, and eventually, all that remains are insectoid sparkles moving at hyerspeed through a sea of tonal drone. “Blindfolds” flows seamlessly out of “Estuary” and sees synthesizer drones taking on a metallic edge…these cold and spectral mirages that move around the periphery. Slow motions oscillations zoom back and forth, looping cycles are disturbed by delay pedal manipulations, and searing screams of fuzz intertwine with abstracted layers of woodwind experimentation, with the whole thing cutting the difference between early Pelt and later Natural Snow Buildings. Resonances grow in strength and sub bass clouds bloom then decay, causing the soul to vibrate at mysterious frequencies. And as disturbing currents of sound spiral towards an unseen center, filtered fogs of feedback hover in place while changing constantly in pitch and timbre.

The A-side concludes with “Stratospheric Clouds,” wherein phaser-blasted chord drones swim around the spectrum. A gentle and child-like sequence enters alongside trilling flute melodies, with a vibe evoking a meditative meadow, over which the titular clouds drift and dance. Reaume’s flute hooks are so peaceful and joyous as they ride a naïve kosmische bounce through wavering cascades of galactic keyboard magic, and in the distance, electronics evoke dripping crystal liquids. Further saw-wave sequential harmonizations join in and Reaume continues her sprightly springtide dance high above, the result a synthesizer and woodwind soundbath perfect for scoring listless days spent in flower fields…lying on your back, eyes closed, feeling the warmth of the sun and the vibrant energy of the natural world all around. At some point, the sequences begin drifting away, leaving space for melancholic chords to decay through echo, with sounds progressively disturbed by garbled fluids. As well, the flute grows ever more abstract as the layers of delay and reverb increase in presence, resulting in granular wavefronts sourced from breath and sibilance. “Lachrymose” opens side B with squarewave tones decaying through a feathery bed of echo as they generate vibes of ocean floor entrancement. Decaying notes pool together into slowly moving vortices of cerulean sound and Reaume’s flute blows low and far away, sometimes blending completely with Sharp’s aqueous atmospherics, while at other times spreading outwards into flows of melodic melancholy. The mix progressively thickens while growing more intense, and multiple flute layers seem to emerge from nowhere as they blow over and around each other, creating waves of harmonic dissonance in the process. A strange sequencer bounce is discernible beneath it all—constructed from subearthen rumbles and tectonic flutters—and as Reaume continues letting lose fantasy incantations beneath melting streaks of galactic glass and laser-light feedback arcs, her playing is dark, warm, and slightly overblown.

A baked Berlin school sequence seeps into the stereo field in closing track “The Permeable Nature of Things,” and blurred chimes float towards the heavens, carrying with them airy wisps of woodwind. Reaume’s wondrous melodies paint the air in understated hues, with attack and presence sanded away to leave a warming cloud of new age tonality. D50 bell tones join the futuristic fairy dance as it gather strength, and twinkles of starlight add further motion and magic to the mix. Another sequence soon fades in—both accenting the foundational synth pattern and giving the track a sense of propulsive motion—and what results is a classic kosmische starscape in the late 70s mold…the kind of thing you’d hear in the early days of Innovative Communication and specifically, on the first few albums from Software. Arpeggiated patterns race around each other…their effect like seafloor gems sparkling in the ocean-filtered sunlight…and a gradual give and take between flute and keys emerges, with the flute at times taking lead and spiraling towards sky, while other times backing into an muted purr as chiming tones dance with reckless abandon. Another woodwind soon enters the scene, so that in one ear flows high-pitched fairy melodies sourced by a standard flute, and in the other, sensual drone breaths provided by an alto. A semblance of percussions works into the stereo field, with tambourines jangling side-to-side and tom and snare hits ricocheting off the walls of the mix…the merging of primitive kraut rhythmics and dazzling sequential constructions calling to mind mid-70s Klaus Schulze. The mix seems to wash out periodically, with elements drifting from each other in time until the rhythmic pulse is lost entirely. And once drums and sequences fade away entirely, what remains is a glorious expanse of aerophone enchantment, wherein Reaume blurs the line between organic and electronic as her intertwining and heavily effected alto and standard flute melodies morph into synthesizer-esque soundtrails. Eventually, a looping keyboard phrase fades in to re-establish a barely-there flow, and as the track comes to a close, the duo’s immersive fantasy landscape is washed out by blooming feedback resonances and wisps of phaser.

(images from my personal copy)